In Olympic ice hockey, teams are made up of five players and a goalie. All players must wear a helmet with face mask. The game has three 20-minute periods with 15-minute intermissions. The team that scores the most goals during group play advances to the semifinals and then to the gold medal game. During the semifinals and final, teams play a best-of-seven series. The first team to win six games wins the gold medal. If the teams are tied after six games, the medal winners are determined by a shootout.
Until the late 1980s, Olympic ice hockey was strictly amateur. But in 1998, the National Hockey League allowed its players to compete at the Olympics. Herb Brooks, the U.S. team’s head coach and the man behind the “Miracle on Ice,” thought his team was ready.
The crowd at Blyth Arena was pumped up, but the American team trailed Sweden 2-1 early in the second period. Then Bill Christian, the smallest player on the U.S. team, skated into the Soviet zone and slammed the puck past goalie Nikolai Puchkov.
The roar of the crowd grew even louder when Bobby Orr scored a goal and the Americans took a 4-3 lead into the third period. But the Soviets had a different plan. After the game had been tied, coach Valeri Kharlamov gave his team a pep talk. He told the players to “inhale oxygen,” as he gestured, and that’s what they did. They scored three goals in the final frame to beat Sweden and claim the gold medal.